London by Bus 1 May 2016

Mayday - and the sun came out to celebrate.  It was a glorious day as I went into London to meet up with Judy, Matthew and Dayne.   Even Paddington was sparkling that morning.

The sun was highlighting the Indo Gothic internal windows at the station.  I've never noticed them before.

This was Dayne and Matt's first trip to London so we decided to do the red bus trip.  A really good way of getting an overview of London.   I was early to meet them at London Bridge so I took a look around the area.

I love these wobbly reflections of St Pauls

 Life imitating art?

Southwark Cathedral is just opposite London Bridge Station

There wasn't much time for more than a quick look-see.  Lots of things to see though and a celebration of Shakespeare who apparently worshipped here.

Then to our meet up, which took more than it's fair share of phone calls to pinpoint our locations!

Apologies for the smudge on the photos.  I did eventually notice and clean the lens.  I'm a bit of an amateur I'm afraid.

We connected eventually and after coffee we found our bus stop and climbed aboard.  It's an interesting viewpoint of London and because it takes in all the famous sights it gives you a perspective of the city which would take much longer on foot.

What is normally above eye level is now plain to see from the top deck of the bus (the only way to travel on a bus) - you don't really see such (or indeed, much) adornment on modern buildings, do you?

This is the back of Buckingham Palace - they do seem to have a bit of a problem with intruders! Another one caught this week.

Waterloo Station - a beautiful building.

Then Big Ben and the Eye from a different angle.

Back through the city, past the one of the dragons that guard the boundaries of the City of London.

Past Ye Olde Cock Tavern

If you're quick, you may catch a glimpse of a young Elizabeth from 1586 down a side street.

St Pauls, gleaming!

A Phoenix possibly?

Then it really was time for lunch.

Because it was a Bank Holiday and the start of spring, the Embankment was heaving, but just one or two streets back was much quieter.  It's a business area of London so there wasn't much open but we did find a Pret a Manger and the lunch was delicious! (much to my surprise).

Included in the bus ticket was a boat ride down to Westminster.

Where we disembarked

Do these people look exhausted?  They were, we were and sun burnt!  Matthew says "that's London done, don't have to do that again".  Not me though, once I've caught my breath, I'll be back.  I love it!

Life

Help, life is running away with me! I fully intend to do more posts but suddenly I realise that the last one was at the beginning of the month.  Sorry, sorry!

Dayne and Matt arrived in the UK at the end of April - I'm not sure they want to be the main feature of a blog post, but, you know, family doesn't really have a choice.

Judy and I  made it to Gatwick in good time on a chilly Friday morning.  Airports, they are always under construction.  Why is that?

And then we waited, and waited, and waited some more.

Had they missed the connecting flight in Dubai?  Had they brought in biltong and customs were offended?  Eventually they appeared, looking like this ...

Tears happened.  But very happy ones.  They are going to be living a fair distance from me so it was great to be able to spend the weekend and share the first few days with them.  Thanks Judy!

The Moms

Dinner at a pub for the first evening.  Meet Shaun the Sheep - Kate's representative in Britain.

Then some shopping the next day - the ubiquitous parking meter - the most challenging factor is to remember your registration number.

And for Kate's benefit - Wimpy, in the UK.  Hi Shaun.

In the afternoon we took a drive out to Ashdown Forest to look for Winnie the Pooh.  We weren't very successful I have to say but it was a fun drive.  It was pretty cold out and the signposting wasn't very good, another time I think.

Then it was back to Burnham and another work week.

Cliveden 17 April 2016

I did it eventually - I got the National Trust card.  Even if you aren't particularly interested in history or old buildings - with this card you get free parking (a big issue wherever you go in the UK), clean toilets and in most places, cake!  And good cake at that.  Worth the expense I say.  There are approximately 500 NT places up and down the country so extremely useful when travelling.  I do happen to like history though, and beautiful gardens, and cake. Win, win, win.

Cliveden (on top of a cliff so cliv not clive) is only a couple of miles from where I live at the bottom of Buckinghamshire.  Lots of history happened here - the highlights being the Duke of Buckingham acquiring it for his mistress and then installing his wife in the house at the same time, a couple of bad fires (one which Queen Victoria saw from Windsor and sent her horse drawn fire engine to help, it didn't get there in time). Being purchased by the American Astor / Waldorf family and of more recent interest - the Profumo scandal circa 1965.  Stanford University used the house until 1983 and it is now a luxury hotel but the grounds are open to the public and there are house tours on weekend afternoons.  No pictures allowed inside the house unfortunately, but it's in fantastic condition.

I started off in the gardens.

It was a sort of cloudy day and still quite cold.  There were lots of families and kids.

A really spectacular fountain called The Fountain of Love - used as the inspiration for the fountain in front of the palace in Cinderella.  All you closet Disney fans - something to watch out for.

Formal gardens - I cannot describe the smell of these hyacinths - the whole garden was scented.  Spot the rogue pinky  ...

The gilded water tower

I spotted these ladies sauntering across the lawn and was confused for a moment.  They were certainly appropriately dressed - for Downton Abbey.  Turns out the a local theatre group dresses up their members and they interact and act out characters of the period before and during the war.  At the end of the house tour you could chat with any of them and they were extremely well versed in their subjects.  I spoke to a Prime Minister's wife (can't recall the name) who was verbose on women's health issues at that time.  It was fun.

Up to the house

And the chapel which stands on the edge of the cliff overlooking the river and the countryside.

The daffodils were still blooming beautiful ..

But the trees have some way to go before showing up for summer

Ah, I thought.  Time for tea.  Well, it was late afternoon and there was not a crumb left!  So I went home disappointed.  Next time I need to get there earlier.  Next time I'll walk around the estate too. It's large and beautiful.